Privacy roundup: Public wary of tech companies, plus NSA-spying news

• A new poll says more than half of Americans are worried that Internet companies are, well, all up in our business. But even as they express concern, they’re not necessarily keeping tabs on how else Google, Facebook, Apple et al are plotting to continue their world domination. Reuters says 51 percent of 4,781 respondents to a poll conducted during a couple of weeks in March said tech companies were “pushing too far and expanding into too many areas of people’s lives.” However, almost a third of those surveyed said they didn’t know that Google and others have or are working on technology that connects products such as cars and appliances to networks.

The results of the survey come as we grow increasingly aware of just how much tech companies (and the NSA and other government agencies) know about us through the information they gather from our online communications and interactions.

“The links between the online world and the offline world are growing tighter. It’s no longer unplugging your laptop and walking away and rejoining the physical world, because the online world is now following you,” said Marc Rotenberg, director of privacy advocacy group EPIC, according to Reuters.

• Speaking of the NSA, the Supreme Court has rejected a petition asking it to decide on the constitutionality of the agency’s collection of phone-call metadata. The National Security Agency’s bulk collection of phone records was the first revelation to come out of the Edward Snowden leaks. The petition was unusual in that it was submitted directly to the high court, bypassing a federal appeals court. The Supreme Court’s refusal to hear the case likely means Congress will have to take action on addressing the section of the Patriot Act that the government is citing as justification for the broad data collection; as Ars Technica points out, lawmakers and President Obama have plenty of measures and proposals revolving around the issue.

• Oh look, here’s another NSA-related item. We here at SiliconBeat have tried to keep up with all the news that has come out since the NSA spying revelations that began trickling out last year. But the developments are plenty, and those who have more than a passing interest might find a new resource helpful. The ACLU last week introduced a searchable NSA documents database, which the group says it will keep up to date as the documents become public. From its announcement Thursday: “This database will serve as a critical tool with which we will hold our government accountable.”

We can’t go into a job interview , and have your potential employer pull up your stats for little league baseball when you were 10 , and decide you’re not a team player he’s not hiring you.

We can’t have the NSA notice all the people in this district are associated with a party that is calling to shut down the NSA , so if there were a little tiny traffic jam just as the majority of them were about to go to the polls , that would nicely sabatage that candidate.

We cant have advertisers succeed in their never ending quest to *MAKE* you buy their products, whether you want to or not.

We can’t have search engines force you to log in so they can keep a profile of you , and decide “you like knitting ? We’re only going to show you the high priced items for knitting. We will not show you the low priced stuff because the knitter companies pay us to do this. ”

And yes, we need to break the internet into pieces , one piece per country , because I’m tired of getting notices from guild wars that some guy from an ip address in china tried to log into my account today. I don’t care how bad they scream about free trade. Free trade is not a license to hack the world.

http://www.americansrighttoprivacy.com/ Eddie Bates

If governments and “free” email providers can peek through your webcam, read your emails and look inside your computer, so can the criminals.

Solutions exist. Today, regaining your online Privacy means going Abroad…http://www.americansrighttoprivacy.com
Americans Right to Privacy has solutions and I am anxious to share them with you. We offer secure, encrypted email, a Virtual Private Network (VPN) which secures your computer’s internet connection, to guarantee that all of the data you’re sending and receiving is encrypted and secured from prying eyes. Also a “Swiss Bank Account for your Data” Digital Safe! And we have rolled out Secure Swiss Web Hosting! Why secure your data in Switzerland? Because Switzerland is known for its strict data privacy laws, has no back door access to encryption for any government agency, not even Switzerland itself
We offer a professional global email service solution for both personal and business use. PrivacyAbroad email service is free of advertising, SPAM and provides private communication with your emails saved and backed up in Switzerland, renowned for its strong data privacy protection laws. Email comes with 1 GB of expandable storage space.

http://poshhub.com/ Phone Source

If an employer ask you for your Facebook account then your employer is dishonest.